This invention relates generally to protective garments and in particular to protective gowns worn by emergency medical personnel for use in treating trauma patients under emergency situations. Such personnel include, for example, paramedics treating patients at accident sites and emergency room personnel.
Hospital gowns are typically designed for one of two uses--either as a sterile gown for use in the operating room or as a non-sterile patient gown. These gowns, especially the sterile surgical gowns, which are worn with face masks and gloves, are worn by physicians and nurses for the protection of the patient, to avoid infecting the patient with any germs the physicians or nurses may be carrying or with germs from another patient. The gowns are maintained sterile and are donned with the aid of other medical personnel in such a way as to maintain a "sterile field" around the patient in the operating room. The ties of such gowns typically extend around the waist of the wearer and are attached at the front or rear by either a sterile or non-sterile assistant. The function of sterile gowns is thus to prevent cross-contamination from patient to patient or from medical personnel to patient. Typical sterile gowns and the manner of using them are described, for example in Aronica, U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,782 and in Reynolds, U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,782. Such gowns are typically made of a disposable non-woven fabric such as the material described in LaFitte et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,911.
In the operating room, medical personnel also don sterile gloves and masks for the same purposes as the gowns. The gloves are typically made of latex or natural rubber. They are put on, after gowning, either by a closed gloving technique or with assistance from another member of the sterile team.
The masks are typically made of a non-woven filter material. They are typically not formed to the wearer's face, and they are pleated to prevent them from becoming saturated with moisture from the wearer's breath and being drawn into the wearer's mouth. The masks are held by ties behind the wearer's head. Masks are non-sterile items and must be donned prior to gowning with the sterile gown. In a non-sterile setting, the gloves and mask are put on at the wearer's leisure.
After an operation, the gowns, gloves, and masks are removed and disposed of before bacteria from the patient can be transferred to other patients directly or indirectly.
Non-sterile gowns worn by patients, by those visiting patients, and by housekeeping personnel perform a similar function of preventing cross-contamination of patients, although the gowns are not as elaborate and no attempt is made to maintain a sterile field around the patient. Typically, such gowns are tied at the waist behind the wearer. Such gowns may be donned at leisure and provide only limited protection against the spread of infection.
Emergency personnel frequently do not use gowns of any sort, because of the time required for donning and removing gowns, and because in a trauma situation the patient is not in a sterile field where contamination of the patient by the attending personnel is the primary consideration.
With the rapid increase of cases of highly infectious diseases, such as AIDS and hepatitis, the medical field has become increasingly concerned not only with protecting the patient, but in protecting the health care provider from a patient's infectious disease. This is especially true in emergency situations either in the emergency room of a hospital or at the site of an accident where it is unknown if the patient is carrying the HIV virus or some other infectious disease. In such a situation a gown or garment is required which adequately protects the health care provider and which can be donned and removed so quickly and easily that the health care provider can give prompt attention to the patient.
Presently, there are no such gowns. Neither patient gowns nor surgical gowns are adequate. Other types of protective garments are also not suitable for emergency medical personnel because they either offer too little protection or are too cumbersome and time-consuming to don.
Patient gowns do not provide much protection, and they generally tie in the back so that they are difficult to secure.
Because surgical gowns are designed to protect the patient, not the wearer, they do not provide adequate protection to the wearer. The wearer's neck and eyes are exposed, and there is no seal between the gloves and sleeves to stop body fluids or chemicals present at accident sites from contacting the wearer's skin. Furthermore, gowns made for the sterile operating room are designed to require assistance in donning and provide even less protection if they are not put on properly.
The additional time required to don gloves and mask, and such other protectors as goggles, further delays the giving of care and denies the patient the prompt attention he needs.